The Walters Shoals is a group of submerged mountains off the coast of

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. The shoals are south of

Cape Sainte Marie Cape Sainte Marie ( mg, Tanjona Vohimena; french: cap Sainte-Marie), formerly known as Cape Romain and Cape St. Mary, is the southernmost point of Madagascar. It is situated in the Androy region from Tsiombe Tsihombe (or: Tsiombe) is a municip ...

and east of

Richards Bay Richards Bay ( af, Richardsbaai) is a town in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It is situated on a 30 square kilometre lagoon of the Mhlatuze River, which makes it one of the country's largest harbours. Richards Bay also has the deepest natural ha ...

at the

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

n coast. The tips of some of the mountains are only below the surface. The Walters Shoals is home to many species of fish, crustaceans, and mollusks. It was discovered in 1963 by the South African Hydrographic Frigate SAS ''Natal'' captained by Cmdr Walters. When found it had a huge population of

Galápagos shark The Galapagos shark (''Carcharhinus galapagensis'') is a species of requiem shark, in the family Carcharhinidae, found worldwide. It favors clear reef environments around oceanic islands, where it is often the most abundant shark species. A larg ...

s but they have since been fished out.

References

Indian Ocean Seamounts of the Indian Ocean Landforms of Madagascar Former islands from the last glacial maximum {{marine-geo-stub